Ugh, ugh, ugh. What is there to possibly say about this series in Cleveland? How frustrating. The home runs from Justin Smoak, Endy Chavez, and Brendan Ryan plus Ryan’s increased hitting over the past few games are great, but they are eclipsed by getting swept in a four-game series in a city we just don’t seem to do well in at all. The team as a whole has been hitting decently; during the Cleveland series, 10-7, 9-13, 4-9, and 12-11. All in all, the double digits are definitely encouraging. But the past four days have been sort of a comedy of errors, as the Mariners have found some really interesting ways to lose. When Tom Wilhelmsen came in today with a one-run lead, I thought we had a shot at avoiding the broom, but no. A botched tag at first on Wilhelmsen’s part, and some handy hitting from the Indians both served to be our undoing. We simply don’t seem to know what to do with runners in scoring position; the offense is there, but not when it counts.

My schedule the past few days has made it nigh impossible for me to watch games; in fact, this morning’s was the only one I have been able to watch in the series. The AL Central is still kind of ‘blah’ to me as far as being able to get excited about the games against those teams. I have a healthy respect for the Tigers, but that’s about it. As of today, though, all those teams present a valid threat to us, and Cleveland, with their 26-17 record, is definitely to watch out for, especially on their home grass. Yuck. It’s a hard team that takes out both Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma. What a mess.

But now we head back to the comforts of the West Coast and the fourth place .386 Anaheim Angels before getting a home Felix start next Saturday against the first place Texas Rangers. Hopefully we can stop our skid a little bit and continue the climb back to second place on the backs of more familiar pitching.